Ongoing trials

• Peppol trainings for end users

  The “Company Digitization” project has initiated an experiment with a Peppol training model aimed at end users. The trainings will be conducted during the spring of 2024. The State Treasury is involved in the “Company Digitization” project and also serves as Finland’s Peppol authority.

  Peppol is an international network of standardized electronic business documents used for electronic transmission. It enables buyers and sellers to send standardized electronic documents.

  Currently, the lack of competence is the biggest challenge for the use of Peppol purchase messages. The purpose of the Peppol training experiment for end users, i.e., those who send and receive messages, is to create a concrete practical example of a Peppol training model: what works, what doesn’t, what arouses thoughts among end users, and what discourages them. The target group for the experiment is small and medium-sized enterprises. Ajantieto Oy is the experiment’s partner, and it is expected to be completed by the summer of 2024.

  “The use of international Peppol messages has also taken off in Finland. Within business systems and financial management, a seamless and standardized flow of electronic and standardized order, order confirmation, delivery, invoice, and payment data enables savings, as incorrect data does not enter the process. The elimination of unnecessary investigation and successful reconciliation enables resources to be directed towards more productive and meaningful work,” says Jaana Koskinen, CEO of Ajantieto Oy, which specializes in training for financial experts.

  The experiment is a continuation of the training model experiment for trainers. It was found that even though end users participated in the trainings, there is still a need for a separate in-depth training model experiment for end users. At the same time, we see if the trainers received enough knowledge from the training directed at them, and how their training should be further developed.

  The experiment fulfills the YD project’s goal of supporting the broad implementation of structured Peppol purchase messages.

  The lessons learned from the end users’ Peppol training experiment are collected and reported openly on the company’s digital project channel.

  More information:

  Noora Salonen
  Expert
  Finland’s Peppol Authority, State Treasury
  noora.salonen@valtiokonttori.fi

• Piloting digital product passport

  The digital product passport contains information about product features, such as the proportion of recycled materials in the product. The digital product passport is defined in the ecodesign for sustainable products regulation, and you can get it online, for example, using the product’s QR code.

  The digital product passport can be implemented in a number of different ways. The product manufacturer can save the digital product passport in a blockchain, in which it is publicly available as a certified document. The product passport must include verified details of the product manufacturer, and the manufacturer can check the data by, for example, using a digital wallet.

  The digital product passport pilot is carried out by STRGL, a tech studio specialising in the research on decentralised technologies. With its TREE® technology, the product manufacturer can obtain the verified details of the user’s digital identity from the elDAS-compliant business wallet of the MiniSuomi environment.

  In the system implemented in the pilot, the manufacturer’s verified identity is saved in the blockchain as part of the product passport data.

  Time

  The pilot will be carried out between March and May 2024.

  Participants

  Finnish Tax Administration, STRGL

  More information

  Mikael Linden, mikael.linden(at)gofore.com

• Testing digital tax residence certificates of tax residence

  On 19 June 2023, the European Commission launched the FASTER initiative. The goal of the initiative and the proposed FASTER Directive is to improve the accuracy of withholding tax at source on dividends and to make the refunding of taxes paid in excess faster and safer. The FASTER Directive will introduce standardised procedures across the EU on interest and dividend income gained from cross-border investments. This will make the application of tax benefits determined in tax treaties simpler, smoother, and more cost-effective. A reporting system has also been proposed which would reduce the risk of tax fraud and misuse. The overall aim of the FASTER Directive is to remove obstacles on foreign investment, and the new rules are expected to come into force during 2027 – 2029.

  The FASTER initiative also involves a proposal for a European digital certificate of tax residence for confirming an investor’s country of residence for tax purposes. For instance, the digital tax residence certificate could be used to prove that the investor lives in Finland and is entitled to a reduced rate of tax-at-source on dividends in accordance with a tax treaty. The digital tax residence certificate should be an electronically signed PDF file readable by both humans and machines, or an optional attestation of attributes (digital certificate in a structured format) in a European digital identity wallet.

  The Real-Time Economy project’s digital business identity team is currently conducting technical trials in the MiniSuomi innovation ecosystem. Using test data, these trials test how a digital tax residence certificate could be requested from the Tax Administration, transferred to the company’s identity wallet, and forwarded to the bank.

  The results of the trials will be presented to banks, who can comment on whether the results are in line with their processes and needs. In a follow-up trial, tests could focus on systems integration with the MiniSuomi digital platform and be extended to digital identity wallets for individuals.

  Goals

  The goal of the trial is to formulate a solution that would allow banks as well as the tax authorities in the source and target countries to reduce the manual processing of documents. The solution would allow the certificate of tax residence to be shared and certified in real time with the tax authority that issued it. It is easy for the data user to verify integrity and accuracy of the data. In the long term, the goal is to enable access to correct information on income recipients at the time of payment in as many cases as possible, which would reduce the need for submitting and processing applications for refund of tax withheld at source on dividends.

  Implementing the digital certificate of tax residence as an attestation of attributes in a digital wallet would serve the aims of other EU Directives as well as tax collection in general. For example, this solution would streamline the reporting obligations of operators in the platform economy (DAC7), the reporting and automatic information exchange on business transactions conducted with cryptocurrency (DAC8), the removal of international double taxation of income, and the accurate assessment of VAT in the country of sale (VAT In Digital Age, VIDA, One Stop Shop).

  Read more and watch the video: Tax residence certificate simplifies withholding tax procedures – Real time economy (yrityksendigitalous.fi)

  Timing

  24 October 2023 – 31 March 2024

  Further information

  Mikael Linden, mikael.linden(at)gofore.com

• Data transmission with uniform interfaces towards the principle of one notification

  In the experiment, we will find out whether shared open interface descriptions can be defined for data transfer. We test the functionality of the interfaces in sending and receiving information between companies and to authorities. The purpose of the interfaces is to transmit business documents and accounting information in a standardized manner.

  When testing data transmission, we use the MiniSuomi platform, where we develop an open test platform for testing interfaces as well. As the experiment progresses, anyone can use the interface specification and use cases developed in MiniSuomi’s testing environment. A link to the testing platform will be added later.

  The uniform procedures for data transfer enhance the availability of real-time information and the utilization of information for companies’ own use and for statutory notifications by authorities. At the same time, it becomes easier to produce company system integrations and thereby develop business processes based on real-time information. When there are uniform procedures for data transfer, the multiple reporting of companies to different authorities is lightened and thus the administrative burden is reduced and the reporting process is simplified.

  Participants

  Statistics Finland, the Tax Administration, Sportum Oy and Taika Group Oy.

  Timing

  09/2023 – 04/2024

  Objectives

  • Find out whether it is possible to develop standard interface specifications for data transfer between companies and between companies and authorities for business documents and accounting information.
  • Verifies the functionality of standard interface specifications between companies and between companies and authorities.
  • Determines software’s ability to implement interface specifications
  • Determine the agencies’ ability to implement interface specifications
  • Find out the interoperability of standard interfaces and their benefits, as well as implementation costs for companies and software houses.
  • Find out how standard interfaces can be made available for general use

  More information

  Elina Koskentalo, Arccos Consulting Oy, elina.koskentalo(at)arccos.fi
  Anttu Osanen, Verohallinto, anttu.a.osanen(at)vero.fi
  Mika Lassander, Tilastokeskus, mika.lassander(at)stat.fi

• Utilization of accounting's standard transaction data

  The aim of the experiment is to verify how accounting’s standard transaction-level information would serve the needs of authorities and other data users, such as auditors and financial institutions, and could partially replace reporting to several different authorities. The purpose is to lighten the administrative notification and reporting obligations of companies in the future. We are also investigating a standard way of presenting the information, which would enable the automated utilization of the information, also in the company’s own systems.

  The trial uses the XBRL GL specification as the file format. The standardisation of the data content is based on the Liikekirjuri account chart and additional monitoring objects that can be standardised.

  Participants

  Finnish Tax Administration, Statistics Finland, Visma Solutions Oy, KPMG Oy Ab and SMEs.

  Time

  04/2023 – 04/2024

  Goals

  • to demonstrate that transaction-level accounting information in a fixed form, standardised in terms of information content, is sufficient to cover various official reports, e.g., income tax, value-added tax and statistics notices
  • to test how the account chart and standardised monitoring items used by customers work in covering the information needs of the authorities
  • to ensure that financial management specialists can produce any necessary mappings between the charts of accounts and standardised monitoring items
  • to understand what the development of the capability requires from software vendors to get data out of the system in a inter-usable format
  • to understand how well the specifications being tested work in practice, and how much work the proposed procedure causes for client companies and software vendors, and correspondingly how much benefit can be achieved from it.

  Trial work in practice

  Accounting transactions are produced in XBRL GL format according to the sample file. The trial requires both synthetic and real data. Synthetic data is completely artificial, and to that extent, publicly open MiniSuomi is the trial platform. Regarding genuine data, processing is done only internally by government agencies. The data in the trial is processed in an information-secure manner.

  More information

  Elina Koskentalo, Arccos Consulting Oy, elina.koskentalo (at) arccos.fi

• Producing financial statements in digital format

  The trial determines how financial administration system suppliers could produce financial statements in a digital, i.e., structured format and transfer the information to the Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH) via an interface. In the trial, the content of an entire financial statement, profit and loss statements and annexes and other information will be produced in inline XBRL format.

  A further goal in the trial is to understand how companies can produce appendices and to what extent their content is worth producing in digital format, as well as how the information can be used. In addition, the effects of introducing inline XBRL reporting are to be investigated further.

  Participants

  PRH, Statistics Finland, Admicom Finland Oy and Oscar Software Oy.

  Time

  03 – 11/2023

  Further information

  Juho Mäkinen, PRH, juho.makinen(at)prh.fi
  Elina Koskentalo, Arccos Consulting Oy, elina.koskentalo(at)arccos.fi

• Data transfer and use of e-invoices

  The trial tests the technical communication of e-invoices via an interface from the operator to data users. It is essential that the material can be converted to a structured form, making it better usable in statistics and automatically assignable to a VAT return.

  Another issue to be determined in the trial is whether the State Treasury can act as a data collector and intermediary for different agencies, for example Statistics Finland or the Tax Administration, in accordance with their access to information rights.

  Building information communication channels like this is part of the ecosystem work of the Real-Time Economy project.

  Participants

  Tax administration, Statistics Finland, State Treasure, Posti Messaging Oy and Tietoevry Finland Oy.

  Time

  2023 – 2024.

  Goals

  • verify whether the technical communication of e-invoices works via an interface from the operator to the State Treasury
  • determine whether the retrieval of e-invoices from an interface works for Statistics Finland and the Finnish Tax Administration
  • study the usability of information obtained from e-invoicing in official reporting
  • determine the functionality of genuine business data, i.e., information obtained from e-invoicing, in the automation of VAT returns and statistical reporting
  • successfully produce a VAT return and describe items that are challenging to produce
  • describe the current implementation of information sourcing for use by different authorities and the effect of changes

  More information

  Read more about the goals of the trial: Lighter reporting and better statistics with e-invoicing, blog 29 March 2023.

  Maria Eskelinen, Tax Administration, maria.eskelinen(at)vero.fi
  Mika Lassander, Statistics Finland, mika.lassander(at)stat.fi
  Tomi Rusi, State Treasury, tomi.rusi(at)valtiokonttori.fi

• eAddress trial in wallet and trust networks

  The digital business identity, wallets and other new technologies must be experimented with to obtain real experiences of using these to support decision-making.

  The use cases that will be worked on in the technical trial will be specified and selected together in joint process workshops with the stakeholders.

  The technical trial will be carried out in the MiniSuomi environment. The technical implementation of a wallet and trust network will be created in MiniSuomi for testing together with stakeholders the business identity eKuitin, in the use of procurement message and other digital documents.

  Participants

  OP, Visma, Posti Messaging, Tieke, Tietoevry, CGI, Nordea, DVV, Finance Finland, Nexigroup, ReceiptHero, Association of Finnish Municipalities, Kesko, Danskebank, Trafore, Tax Administration and State Treasury

  Time

  2022-2024

  More information

  esko.kaarlonen (at) valtiokonttori.fi

• PoC for the construction industry with Peppol procurement messages

  The goals of the proof of concept (PoC) are to verify the functionality of the Peppol network in the construction and construction product industries, including the use of standardised product data, and to evaluate the effects of electronic information exchange with the experience gained from the PoC. A technical experiment will also be carried out in connection with the PoC, in which realistic procurement messages will be transmitted in the Peppol network. At the same time, the PoC promotes the project’s goal of commissioning structured (Peppol) procurement messages.​

  ​The PoC promotes the digitalisation of the construction and construction product industries, offering as a solution the possibility to harmonise the business and product information in data exchange, reduce the costs of data processing and improve data quality. This allows, for example, the parties to send and receive standards-based structured messages.​​

  ​When it is more commonplace, the solution will enhance the efficiency of procurement-related transportation and other logistical processing and enable a reduction in CO2 emissions, as the predictability of operations increases.​

  ​The PoC applies to companies working as buyers in the construction industry and as suppliers in the construction product industry. It also affects logistics companies participating in product supply chains and research that develops supply chains for the construction industry: for example, the Building 2030 consortium projects, Peppol service providers and the State Treasury as the Peppol authority.​​

  ​The purpose of the PoC is to produce a practical example of the implications of the use and transmission of electronic business information in the construction and construction product industries. Based on the results, the construction industry ecosystem can plan and implement actions leading to the production use of Peppol messages. 

  The results of the PoC will be published in open webinars (or similar) and as their materials.​​

  Osallistujat

  The PoC is implemented in the MiniSuomi environment in cooperation with Fira Rakennus Oy, DBE Core Oy, Maventa Oy and the Real-Time Economy project.​​

  ​Time

  Start in January–February 2023

  More information

  Hannu Kivinen, State Treasury,​ hannu.kivinen (at)valtiokonttori.fi

• E-invoicing to boost warehouse accounting

  The purpose of the trial is to test how communicating product and batch information as part of an e-invoice could facilitate the work of agricultural and small entrepreneurs and stakeholders, such as supervisory authorities, and lighten reporting. In the trial, product and batch information are added to the e-invoice, and mobile machine-reading of data will be tested, so that the information could be used in warehouse and block registrations as well as in the food producer’s traceability reporting. This would make the farmer’s everyday life smoother, since entries could be made where the work is done, i.e., in the barn and on the fields, for example. The trial will produce a guide for adding product batch information to the European e-invoice format and demonstrate the benefits of the solution for the industry and its stakeholders, for example in product traceability reporting.

  Participants

  The experiment is implemented as a MiniSuomi implementation in cooperation with KomKom Ky and the software vendor Suonentieto Oy.

  Time

  Start in February 2023

  More information

  Johanna Kotipelto, Tax Administration, johanna.kotipelto (at) vero.fi